Thread by @jimstinson

🧵There can be only one Trump: One pitch I regret not writing and trying to get printed over the last five years was that President Donald Trump is a one-time phenomenon. Not his ideas, I want to stress. But his candidacy and methods. Others who try to emulate him will fail. (1)

First, there is his money. He has a lot, and he knows a lot of rich and richer people. He is famously stingy, so he reveled in getting others' money to help him, which he could do. And he was famous, so he got a lot of grassroots money. (2)

Using this formula, @seanhannity and a few others thought Dr. Oz would be a good candidate for #PaSen. They turned their nose up at David McCormick, a solid conservative and former Trump aide, who had solid help from Chris Wilson's @WPAIntel et al. (3)

Dr. Oz was not Trump. He was not angry about injustice done to blue collars. He tried to make a case against Fetterman for the threat to fracking (very important to Penn). He was also seen as a NJ resident, a weakness a presidential candidate doesn't have. (4)

So this formula of Dr. Oz being a Trumpian figure failed. Oz is rich but he didn't have $25M to dump into the race in October. And he didn't have a connection with blue collars or suburban Penn women, which Trump worked to get in 2016. (5)

Then there's Blake Masters (R), in #AZSen. He's rich too, but he didn't have $50M for September and October. He didn't come across as a populist although I think he was more of one than Oz. Unlike Oz, though, he was totally new to Arizona voters. That is quite un-Trump. (6)

We can run through a lot of other Trump-backed House candidates.

OHIO: J.R. Majewski was all Trump talk but you should not exaggerate like Trump. No one can.
NH: Karoline Leavitt is 25. A Former Trump aide, being near Trump is not enough. (7)

MICHIGAN: John Gibbs had some some Trumpian musings in his past. Only Trump can get away with that.

PENN GOVERNOR: Then there's Doug Mastriano. He easily could have been a miss in 2010 when the Tea Party nominated some under-qualified people. He was not Trump.
(8)

The GOP candidate who had the easiest race in an open seat was Eric Schmitt, the Missouri AG and senator-elect.

Nominating a proven vote getter was the way to go in 2022, and is usually the only way to go. There can only be one Trump. (9)